Applicant engages, amongst other activities, in the reconductoring of high voltage power lines without interrupting the service provided by the existing lines. In the Applicant's patent no. U.S. Pat. No. 7,535,132 for a Live Conductor Stringing and Splicing Method and Apparatus, there is described in one embodiment of that invention a method for reconductoring a high voltage power line that involves the relocating of an existing phase conductor to a temporary support structure adjacent to existing structure and then stringing of a new phase conductor on the existing support structure, whereby the new phase conductor is located between two dead ends near one of the existing phase conductors and the temporary support structure is located near the existing support structure. The power load of the existing phase conductor on the temporary support structure is then transferred to the new phase conductor using two temporarily installed transfer buses that are oriented generally laterally with respect to the existing phase conductors. The temporary transfer buses and the old phase conductor on the temporary support structure are removed.
The transfer bus described in the Applicant's previous patent no. U.S. Pat. No. 7,535,132 is comprised of a conductor with insulators connected to each end of the conductor. The insulators are installed on a transfer bus support structure. The transfer bus may include a flexible conductor or a rigid conductor suspended between the transfer bus support structures.
Prior art transfer buses and their use in prior art reconductoring methods are cumbersome to use, as they require the installation of two separate transfer buses, each requiring their own set of transfer bus support structures which may include temporary support structures installed in the ground or temporary support insulators installed on the support structures for the existing phase conductors to be worked upon. As such, the construction of temporary support structures for supporting each of the temporary transfer buses adds to the time, labour and materials required, increasing the overall cost of a reconductoring project and safety risk as it has to be installed above or below energized conductors. Thus, there is a need in the industry for an improved transfer bus that is safer and easier to install and uninstall, and which may be easily moved from one section of a reconductoring project to the next without requiring its own support structures.